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Santes
Santes '''is a master of fire who, despite not being immortal, has appeared multiple times in the course of history. He championed the flame of Brave Flare centuries before Micoda did. Much later, he proved to be a strong enemy and ally to Micoda as the gladiator and ex-soldier known as the mysterious '''Legionnaire. Youth Santes was born around 2200, in a small jungle village at the outskirts of a very natural realm called Khoar. From the young age, he was intrigued by the wideness of the world and the stars. However, there was a danger lurking if one dared to explore Khoar, since there existed a race of hideous demons that had spread their influence over the realm. Santes trained and trained in order to surpass the strength of the lesser demons and then fought them during the day with his powers of fire. He was able to defeat some of them and drew from them their essences, which he used to better understand and counteract their powers. Santes incinerated many demons with his newfound abilities. Finally, the demons, which Santes had come to understand were called "inferno demons", made a plan to erase the "lesser race" of humans. Santes woke up one night, sensing the imbalance of spirits, and realized that one of the most powerful demons of the race was coming directly towards his village. Santes ran away, half fearing for his life and half hoping to divert the assault away from his village. The demon teleported to him once he had unknowingly reached a dead end, and laughed at Santes. "You have run away from us, but no more! The humanity's so-called honor gone, your life gone with it!" announced the demon, surrounding the area with flame. Santes looked at the monstrous, shadowy flame-wielding demon that was meters taller than himself, and took a stance. The demon sent a shadowy stream of energy at Santes. He lost his stamina and felt despair, but despite it he still stood. "How come you still wish to be?" asked the demon, knowing that Santes could not feel well after the debilitating attack. "I am not done." Santes activated a ritual technique, calling forth spirits and created his own stream of flame which spun around in the air. The demon sighed and blasted it, only for Santes to directly aim his at the new attack. The flame of the demon succumbed and added its power to Santes's flame, who tore half of the demon away with the blast. The demon fled. Beyond Khoar After the battle, Santes found himself weary but made it back to the village, where he was healed. As he recovered for a few days, a visitor came to him. It was a wielder of red energies much like himself. "I am Waher, and I have come from beyond Khoar to meet you." Santes was intrigued by the visitor, who wore an outfit suited for battle and had considerable power. "I wish to thank you for weakening the demon Khelishepto, who fell prey to our hunters after you had done your part." Santes felt happy for the recognition of his efforts, but the visitor interested him much more. "Hunters?" he asked, and Waher smiled. "Yes, hunters of demons. We are a party of many. We have come to this area's outskirts, but we have lacked manpower to finish things with these inferno demons." Santes wanted to ask many things, but the first thing was "I want to go there... Beyond the jungle, beyond the stars. I want to live an adventure and test my strength in the world." Waher sighed. "Believe me, the world is cruel. People out there can be worse than death. Not every world is a pleasant sight. We can purge demons, at least..." he noted, looking outside. "...I just wish humanity could be purged as well." Santes did not understood the complicated thinking of the man, but he insisted. "I want you to take me, Waher. I want you to take me to the other side of the stars." Waher hesitantly agreed. As they were leaving, the demons ambushed their teleportation ritual. Waher revealed his fighting technique, sending two dozen swords spinning and independently attacking the demons in range. Santes found his flame to be ineffective against the more agile demons and felt inspired by Waher's strength. After leaving Khoar, they came to a floating rock´in space. Santes somehow understood that the rock was not natural, but instead made; also it felt harder to breathe. While there, Waher did not pay attention to him, but instead looked at something that Santes understood was a map of Khoar, way more precise than the ones that his village used. The demon nests were marked and the leaders were illustrated. Santes slowly understood that everyone was somehow respecting Waher. He did not dare to ask about it, but he felt amazed that such man had an interest in him. At some point, Waher's advisor, Cresus, came to Santes, telling that they could arrange for him to go to a great city a good distance away. He would, however, need to work there and pay them back. Santes agreed. Kunoma Santes took a dimensional vessel, which apparently belonged to "Blood Waher", confirming Santes's suspicions about Waher's reputation and strength. Finally, they arrived to a large, populated realm called Kunoma and its capital city. Santes received a letter of recommendation and a letter marking his debt, which he promised to pay off as soon as possible. Santes entered the exams for the correctional force, making it in. He watched the streets for a year, paid off his debt, and continued to be amazed by the strange cultural differences in the city and people entering it from all over the world. He also learned that Blood Waher was not only a totalitarian demon hunter, but a Creator Force, an entity far more powerful than he could imagine. However, that year was enough to convince him that he could not work under the strict bureaucracy of the correctional force. He quit and went to the countryside to train. During his next years, he constantly improved his techniques, but rumors told him crime levels were rising in the capital. Santes disguised himself and entered the sewers of the city to find people with underworld connections, trying to identify these criminals to punish them. His idea of vigilante justice was however halted in the beginning as he found out that the man he had met previously, Waher's advisor, Cresus, was the one running Kunoma's underworld and bribing the senators. Knowing that he could not get enough close to Cresus without being noticed, he instead sought to eliminate his thugs and operatives. At one point, he even eliminated a courier that was carrying important files. Santes chose to deliver them to the correctional force in secrecy, and suddenly the news screamed that Cresus had a bounty on his head. Somewhere on the other side of the world (or rather, First Universe) Waher understood the gravity of the situation. His advisor was stripped of his rank, meaning his diplomatic immunity vanished. He sent a message to Kunoma's correctional force to set up "an incorruptible team to capture Cresus". Kunoma's chief of correctional force knew that there was someone who had delivered the information and asked his people to track that man down. One morning, Santes was captured and blindfolded in his bed and delivered to the correctional force, where he reluctantly admitted that he was indeed behind this. The chief remembered Santes's short career in the correctional force and told that he wanted the person with the "guts to deliver these results", asking Santes to head the team. Santes agreed on some conditions. First, he wanted only support. He knew Cresus was despisable and wanted to personally fight him. Second, Cresus needed to be captured alive. The chief admitted that Cresus was likely going to be kept alive merely for Waher to personally execute Cresus. Santes opposed the needless bloodshed, but ignored the comment. The mission was carried out in silence. At a gathering of several corrupt politicians and other high-level figures, Cresus did not notice that he had been suddenly surrounded by disguised agents of the correctional force, Santes among them. Rather than be hopelessly killed for opposing the authorities, Cresus surrendered and quietly left the party in custody, getting locked up. Cresus, however, killed his guards and fled. He sent a message, threatening to destroy the Senate of Kunoma unless he was given means to escape Kunoma. Santes found out about message and left in silence to seek Cresus without official approval. The correctional force went after him and Cresus, causing Cresus to try to ignite explosives that he had set in the building. Santes noticed the ritual circles that Cresus had set up and activated his flame seals. Although Cresus noted his appearance, Santes noted the opportunity and struck with his full force to begin with, leaving Cresus with a simple choice: to die and destroy the Senate or to live. The cowardly Cresus chose to live. Santes and Cresus fought on the hill overlooking the Senate. Cresus used his shadow manipulation to lock Santes's flames, then sent him falling off the hill. Santes's soul responded to his efforts, and he subconsciously summoned a phoenix, which carried him away from harm. Cresus crafted a eagle from shadows to pursue. High up in the air, Santes felt his soul allow him to recover and recognize that he was being pursued. He locked on to his enemy and turned the phoenix's course around to directly attack Cresus. However, Cresus was prepared. One of the bribed senators had sent several groups of mercenaries to enter the air battle on the back of their own summoned birds, forcing Santes to make quick decisions. He felt the newfound power of flame within him, encouraging him to battle at his fullest. Santes jumped off the phoenix and flew through air with a Fire Rocket technique to assault the mercenaries while letting the phoenix crash at Cresus's eagle. After Santes dealt with the mercenaries, Cresus used the eagle's remnants to whip up a paralyzing storm of shadow energy that threw Santes off the bird and falling towards the ground. Now, with both of them falling, Cresus's party had the upper ground. He was shot multiple times and had his lungs penetrated by a lance, for which Santes lost his consciousness. During the final moments of the battle, Flame Fardiga, king of Kunoma and one of the Creator Forces, arrived and forced Cresus to flee. That moment Santes's will to live resonated with Fardiga's majestic rage and triggered his evolution to Brave God form. The overflowing flames exhausted themselves to heal Santes's injuries, leaving him very barely alive. Flames of Fury Thinking that Santes was dead, Fardiga's people carried him away from the scene. He received a funeral of honor. While Santes was barely alive, he recognized the fact that he was being buried alive. He carefully waited until no one was aware, then rose from his grave. It was time to truly start his vigilante justice. He did his research disguised under the name "Legionnaire", making people think he was one of Waher's operatives pursuing Cresus. He mercilessly interrogated people from the underworld, who admitted that Cresus had left Kunoma to an unknown location. Finally, someone who knew Cresus quite well fell into his hands, admitting that Cresus was returning to Kunoma for a brief visit. It was about bribing a senator and a correctional force officer to leave his bank accounts out of a supposed investigation. Santes knew there was little to do if he wanted to keep his cover. There was, however, the chance that he could get help from someone he could trust. He sent an anonymous message to Blood Waher himself, detailing Cresus's plan. Yet he did not hear back from Waher and chose an alternative plan. Knowing that there were few officers in the correctional force who were shady enough to be bribed, he tracked them and witnessed the money changing hands with his own eyes. He then attacked the man and blackmailed him to comply. Since Cresus was going to the senator, Santes needed authorization from someone in the correctional force to freely move around the senate. The man was essential for that purpose. Santes followed his plan, finally seeing Cresus after a long time. He knocked the corrupt officer out and proceeded to intervene, but at that moment, the entire Senate went on a lockdown. Panicked, Santes did not realize that it was due to his actions. Waher was aware of the shady meeting taking place, so he had given the approval for his covert operatives to move in and intercept. Santes's shady movements led to him getting captured in the process. Cresus and the senator, Hacall, faced charges and were then approved by Fardiga to be sent to Waher to determine their punishment. Santes, however, was never officially reported captured, but was sent directly to Waher as well. Somewhere halfway between Waher's most recent battleground and the realm of Kunoma, the trio was delivered to Waher. They were hooded and blindfolded, but as his men took them off, Waher was visibly surprised by the sight of Santes. "Cresus... Hacall the senator... You of all people, Santes? What is going on here?" Santes looked angrily at him. "What do you think?" Waher understood his mishap concerning the operation. "My apologies..." As they were releasing Santes, Waher leaned over to his former advisor and the corrupt senator. "This is all very pitiful. The people trusted you, and to purge you is no pleasure, but a necessity." Santes hopelessly watched from the sidelines and screamed "NO!" from the top of his lungs as Waher decapitated the two of them. Numb from the sight, Santes did not react as Waher's fleet began to leave the scene. However, something inside him snapped. '"WHY, WAHER?" he shouted. "WHAT ABOUT THE COURT? WHAT ABOUT THE LAW?" Waher turned amidst the crowd but said nothing, then proceeded into his flagship. Santes cried over the body of Cresus and Hacall, knowing that there had been a chance for justice. He blamed himself for getting caught during the operation, and vowed that he would deliver justice. Demon conspiracy Santes, knowing that his cover was still intact, wandered the world for the next years searching for a purpose. He finally stopped at Millennium Capital, an interesting knowledge-driven town close to the edge of First Universe. There, he became aware of a mystic, a native of the area who had fought against demons and developed techniques against them. Santes studied the "purifying flame", an art that combined the essence of anti-demonism and his usual arts. The sage teacher told that his chakra's name was Brave Flare, a power closely related to that of dragons. After a while, Santes began to realize that the sage was very old. He had taught many men among the course of history. The best known was Uuvya the swordmaster from eight centuries ago. Santes asked who the teacher actually was, and he admitted to being an Ancient. His kin were people who had fought alongside the most primeval elementals of the world. Santes left Millennium Capital after training for two years. After that, he found out that someone was following his movements. It was a stealthy character with the ability to disappear at a moment's notice, possibly not even human. Santes finally pretended to be going to his old house in the countryside and activated his summoning technique, sending a phoenix at the enemy. There, the tracker, a demon by the name of Shaddisath dismissed the phoenix and tried to assault Santes. Santes understood that demons were afraid of his newly found powers, but the fact the demon was following him meant that there was something suspicious in Millennium Capital. The battle with Shaddisath ended in a draw after both of them were able to lock each other's attack style. Santes, however, pursued Shaddisath valiantly with his newfound knowledge of demonic energies and ways to fight them. He found Shaddisath, while a shade demon, to be a messenger that affiliated with the family of Reaper Demons. It was apparently very intelligent and capable of understanding other demon races' languages. Santes took his time finding out what their plan was, and came to the conclusion that they were organizing demons for a specific encounter: a battle against something. The encounter was apparently due to happen in a few days in the jungle realm of Fokka. The area was full of dangerous wildlife, volatile energies and thick forests. Santes decided to avoid the encounter for the sake of it seeming too dangerous. Santes went towards Kunoma, only to find the demons swarming the most direct ways of passage. He hid, but stayed close and observed the behaviour of the demons. They mindlessly drifted towards the encounter grounds of Fokka, looking forward to it. After he was sure of them passing, Santes continued his journey towards safer realms. He however encountered a patrol of mercenaries, who introduced themselves as people from Kunoma. Santes was startled, but he hoped that they had never heard of his past. One of the men admitted that the demon movement was upsetting them. They went in swarms from all over towards Fokka and corrupted the soil as they went. The problem for them was that they could not help since the demons were too many. Santes did not want any part of their problems, so he tried to leave. Yet, he realized in the last possible second that the men could not have been there for long or they would have been caught by the demons. Thus, his curiousity got the best of him and he asked how Cresus's death had been dealt with in Kunoma. The men noted that they were officers of Kunoma's correctional force. A new leader of correctional force had been appointed to oversee the system since Cresus's corruptive influence had to be completely gotten rid of. The new master of correctional force was called Thessus, a man who had set the bureaucracy far greater than his predecessors. After getting the post, Thessus had set up new investigation units and security patrols. Though the area where the men had entered was quite far away from Kunoma, Thessus considered all malevolent activities important. Thus the demon movements had to be tracked. Santes was intrigued by what kind of man Thessus was, so he said farewell and continued towards Kunoma. After reaching the outskirts of Kunoma, he heard that Waher's army had suffered massive casualties in a jungle realm thought to be the base of unknown demonic entities. Santes understood what had been going on. Shaddisath had organized a trap for Waher's intelligence, luring the army in to fight a losing battle. He became enraged and went to the capital. He took off his disguise, demanding to see Thessus. The audience with the chief took several days to organize, during which he discussed the state of affairs of Kunoma with several old friends. Santes was warned multiple times of the new level of bureaucracy. Finally, he met with Thessus. Thessus was an elderly man with an impressive presence. Thessus noted that Santes should quit the independent investigation and join the correctional force, who could surely use his abilities rather than "wasting his life on the battlefield". He also added that though Shaddisath was clearly a threat, there were "not enough resources to capture a shade demon in the entire department". Santes left Thessus abruptly after Thessus had suggested those things. He felt himself betrayed by the authorities and the bureaucracy. He disguised himself again, went to the underworld, and brutally entered the lair of one of the bosses of the crime syndicates, a powerful sorcerer by the name of Magiflare. A fight broke out with the intruding Santes and Magiflare's bodyguards. Yet Santes had no problem of counter-attacking their rushed attacks with his new battle arts. Magiflare was intrigued rather than scared and wished to know Santes's agenda. Santes told him the cover story that he was the "Legionnaire", the underground information gatherer for Waher's army. Magiflare noted that he was probably searching for Shaddisath, which Santes found odd. Magiflare clearly had good information channels and was aware of the recent plot against Waher's army. Santes wanted the whereabouts of Shaddisath, to which Magiflare responded that the demons were gathering on the far side of Millennium Capital, in a realm called "Dead Skull", or "Magder" in demon language. Santes asked how he knew all this, and Magiflare told that Shaddisath had sought his help. Yet Magiflare denied, because he thought demons were bad for all the illegal business he was doing. Santes felt disgusted by the man and attempted to leave. Magiflare froze him in place, revealing his immense power, and told him that it was the last time that they were going to meet. Otherwise he would be "one more stain for Waher's bloody cloak." The hunter Santes asked his old colleagues for help. They helped him board a diplomat ship that traversed to Millennium Capital. While there, Santes tried to see his old teacher, but found the teacher's home deserted. He broke in, sensing something suspicious, and detected demonic energies in the house. While the act of breaking in raised some attention, Santes used his role as Waher-affiliated "Legionnaire" to cover up, telling that the fact that there were demonic energies had raised his alert. He met up with local authorities, who admitted that the leader of Millennium Capital, the enigmatic Creator Force by the name Millennium Fairy, did not want to pay attention to such things herself. Santes noted that he had found out about a demon lair on the far side of Millennium Capital. The authorities were not aware of such thing, and questioned "Legionnaire's" information. He admitted that the information was improbable, but he was concerned if Millennium Fairy was involved in the demon conspiracy if the authorities were not knowledgeable. He pretended that he was returning to inform Waher and left. He entered the lair, Magder, during a time of the night that he sensed most demons present, activated his battle arts and commenced battle. Several demons perished immediately after he exposed them to his "purifying flame", the centerpiece of the battle arts of his old teacher. However, after he went deeper, the energies within appeared more disturbing, and he was greeted by Shaddisath himself. "Santes..." the demon arrogantly spoke his name, disregarding the disguise which Santes had on. Santes proceeded to battle Shaddisath, but the demons swarmed him from all sides, forcing him to use all of his energies to battle the lesser demons and stay alive. However, sensing a moment of weakness, he blasted the walls of the lair, forcing the lair to collapse upon the swarming demons. As he had hoped, an escape route opened up with the attack. He fled. After healing his wounds, Santes returned to Millennium Capital. The authorities were not happy that Santes had lied to them, but they offered their help if Millennium Fairy agreed to it. Santes did not like the idea of them asking a possible conspirator, but then again, he knew as little of the Creator Force as he knew of the people working under her. Millennium Fairy however gave her consent to the plan, according to the High Vizier Graffata, the closest advisor to her. They returned and this time, the cave's defenses were stronger but so were their offense, with Santes having an easy time picking out and destroying the most powerful adversaries of the swarms. Shaddisath was nowhere to be seen, but Santes felt immense darkness emanating from the bottom of the lair and led the assault to the final room of the demon-infested dungeon. The surprise was great as his old teacher gazed upon him on the demons' throne, wielding the demonic arts that Santes was fighting. The teacher greeted each of them individually. "Sil'theron!" '''shouted the native Millennians. They could not understand their respected elder gone over to the enemy, but Shaddisath appeared from the shadows, telling that he had set up a great plan to destroy Millennium Capital from within. After corrupting the elder, he was sure that any of the Millennians could be twisted to their cause as well. Santes was enraged and channeled forth his most powerful attack technique against demons: Flash of Purgatory. Sil'theron however announced: "I AM SIL'THERON THE CHAOTIC. ALL CREATION BEGONE!"' and counterbalanced the technique with overwhelming wave of Chaos, the purest energy of the voids of space. Santes, however, prevailed and set up a ritual technique. "Flame of the fallen phoenix The purgatory igniting the lair of the demons Come from within the void - '''DEMONSLAYER BLADE'!" Santes summoned forth the spirits that crafted him a powerful sword from the hundreds of demons that he had slain to face Sil'theron and Shaddisath, sending a ruthless and absolute uncontrollable shockwave that destroyed the entire room. Lost to his rage in the wake of destruction, he passed out. A day later, he woke up among the rubble. The enemies were nowhere to be seen, but he rose and saw the corpses of many powerful demons as well as those of all his allies. He however regretted nothing, numb after his dark rage towards the demons. As he emerged from the dungeons, he encountered an advance party of Waher's army. Some of Waher's best men were investigating the strange quake that had shook the whole realm. They helped Santes heal his wounds. The leader of the party, a man called Denhel, had apparently killed several demons escaping the scene. Santes respected his efforts and asked what they were going to do and whether they knew if any demons escaped. They admitted that they knew nothing of the demons, and it was likely that Shaddisath and Sil'theron had died in the clash. As Santes was getting ready to leave towards Millennium Capital, he pondered what to do. He felt that nothing remained now that he had filled his purpose. Denhel asked him to join Waher's army. He had apparently done great work for Waher, or so Denhel had understood the rumors. Santes agreed. For the next years, he led several assaults on the old bases of demons. His most important mission was to liberate Fokka, the unfortunate battleground, from the several races of demons still present there. He, however, broke Waher's army's protocol and interrogated them to find out that apparently Shaddisath was really dead after the battle at Magder. The other officers condemned this behavior, but never reported it to the higher-ups. After liberating Fokka, he was invited to join the executive branch of Waher's army. There were no more than eighteen members working there, and they were the best of his army. Santes did not find the leadership position, far away from the field, really suited for him, but he could not bring himself to quit it, since the army had given him a purpose that he had longed for. Operation Dead Skull One day, the head of the army Blood Waher himself met up with Santes to invite him to a secret mission. A very select group of operatives were to attack a shade demon by the name of Shaddigrath at an unknown location. Santes and the others were chosen from the vast army due to excellent combat ability, and Santes agreed to take part. In the briefing, the mission, "Operation Dead Skull", was to actually take place on Magder. The target was not only a shade demon, but the master of Shaddisath, the now dead nemesis of Santes. For Santes, the mission had become personal. The team reached Magder via stealth teleportation and rushed into the lair, only to find it rather disturbing. There were runes coating the walls everywhere, but the demons that had once swarmed the area were not present. Not only were there no demons, but Santes understood the danger as he came close to the bottom of the dungeon and saw it fixed from the way it had been devastated by Demonslayer Blade years ago. "Halt! I can see that this is a trap!" he shouted, only to have Shaddigrath the shade demon emerge from the shadows and impale Santes, the frontrunner of the group, with a spear. The one beside him, his oldest friend in the army, Denhel, struck the demon with several highly powerful physical attacks until it retreated to the final chamber. Santes, bleeding to death, activated his regeneration techniques and insisted that the party go on and fight Shaddigrath. He believed it was for the greater good. One of the healers, a Kelarian seer called Khassia, stayed behind. Waher himself calmly walked past Santes and used his trademark projectile attacks to limit the options of the agile shade demon's movements. Santes rose after taking in some healing and rushed to fight Shaddigrath. It turned out that Shaddigrath had used shadow manipulation on Denhel, injuring Waher and killing two of their elite warriors in the process. Santes finally understood what he had to do to defeat the demon. He activated Ring of Encircling Purification, a ritual which trapped the demonic energies of Shaddigrath and prevented him from teleporting. The demon struck Santes with a stream of deadly energy, only for Denhel to save his friend by jumping in front of the blow. Santes wanted to scream, seeing his friend die before his eyes, but he focused his energies and subconsciously invoked his soul to send a purifying blast at Shaddigrath. Suddenly, the attack disappeared. Right next to him, Santes found the old nemesis, Shaddisath, grabbing his arm and sealing his technique like many times before. Santes jumped back in surprise. Waher took advantage of the moment to blast Shaddisath out of the way with an immense fireball. Seeing his old nemesis alive brought Santes to the brink of rage, undoing the last bits of his sanity to summon the Demonslayer Blade to his hands once again. Then, Santes found himself dripping blood, with his grip of the blade loose. Waher, aware of what would happen if he were to unleash the power of the blade with him in the vicinity, had impaled his torso with his blade. Not only that, Waher was drawing forth his energies into more controllable version of the technique. "Why... did you betray me?" asked Santes. Waher merely looked at the man and gave a telepathic response. "I calculated everything. You accidentally killing me would lead to the anti-demon movement dissolving. And I do not wish to ever die. I am accustomed to the immortality that I was born with." Santes's energies, now wild as he understood his death at the hands of the egoistic idealist that he had trusted, backlashed and banished Waher from the dungeon, allowing the demons to flee. Santes burst into tears and looked at Khassia, who had healed him just before the final fight. With Waher out of hearing range, he spoke. "You have done much good. Please, tell Kelar Tree that Waher cannot be trusted. He wants more power, he wants only more. He will inevitably ruin the balance of the Creator Forces..." Then he gasped for the last time. The battle had ended, but the members who heard Santes's last words would never trust Waher again. Khassia carried the last message of Santes to Kelar Tree. The treeform Ancient felt the honesty of the healer's words and began to slowly cut his connections to Waher. Utopian age Centuries would pass. Santes's memory was honored by people all over the First Universe. Some were Waher's people who regarded him as a hero, some were Kunoma's people who knew him as a righteous man, some were Kelar's people who knew him as a brave opposer of a tyrant. Micoda Hirichi, the rising hero of his age in the 2900s, would summon forth the soul of Santes from his slumber in Nether. He was fighting the corrupt authorities of the world, much like Santes centuries before. It was clear that the two had minds so similar that they resonated to the depths of their soul. Santes realized that he had first defeated Millennium Fairy. Next on his list was the old nemesis Blood Waher and his vast network of corrupt people. After all of that, Micoda was opposing a strange dark entity known as Aessandra. It was clear that Micoda and Santes synchronized well. It was even to the point that Micoda wielded the art of Brave Flare, just like Santes had done. However, one encounter of Micoda and his allies proved too dangerous. Aessandra attacked Kunoma, forcing Santes to surface and reach for allied spirits to fight back. Yet Aessandra wished to call forth a dark, destructive force that would kill everyone in its path. Santes saw no choice. He had originally died in a shadowy situation, but now, he had the chance to be the hero. Santes sacrificed his link with Micoda, resonated with the spirits, and unleashed his anti-demonic arts against the demonic Aessandra. The attack was negated and the lives were saved. As for Santes, his soul was now completely lost and torn to the astral winds. Modern Deep within the astral winds lied the base of the a demon who had no interest in war. That demon was Memoxara. She was the queen of Memory Demons, a philosopher seeking balance outside conflict, lying in the Third Worlds. Yet she was searching for power that she could lean on. She had heard the spirits telling stories of the heroes of ages gone. One of them was Santes. The ancient evil of Alypos was rising and she was running out of options. She needed to interfere. Memoxara contacted her old ally, Memorado, a loyal servant and a scientist. He was the person that Memoxara had charged with a plan to save the world if she would perish. Memoxara's plan for salvation was to simply influence people with power from their counterparts and Bleached Ones. '''This act was called the '''Modernization and it purified people's souls. These resulting people, Modern entities as opposed to Ancients, the rulers and beings of old who Memoxara disliked due to their inability to adapt to the ever-prevalent change. With purified souls, Memoxara would be able to cultivate true heroes. Or so she thought. In reality, Modernization was only experimentation. Santes was one of the first batches of experiments. He was reconfigured from his essence that the queen summoned from space, then Memorado infused him with the two energies. As a result, Santes was an entity without emotion. He felt nothing and was only responsive to Memoxara, which was somewhat as intended. Memoxara did not like the ones who turned out to be unemotional like Santes, but after thinking about it, she did not need for them to have emotions. The emotionless warriors would join Micoda's side and fight fearlessly. As Micoda entered the realm, Memoxara had Santes along other Moderns go with Micoda and fight Alypos. Santes attacked Alypos's allies along other Moderns. He perished during the battle. Afterwards, Santes was revived. Somehow, due to possibly dying and coming back to life, he was now like his former self. He wished to serve Memoxara and made an impression by easily besting all battle trials that she set to him. He was approved to join her inner circle, which also included Echo, Gedran, and Uuvya. Life seemed easier with Alypos and The Divine Core having been defeated. Against the oldest of enemies Later, within Last Haven, Santes realized something while going on with his daily schedule of fighting Memoxara's beasts to get used to his Modern powers. There was something alerting as he was observing the situation of the worlds. One of the members of the inner circle, Gedran the scarlet elf, had become quite different after observing one of the newest enemies, Phantom of the Apocalypses. The Phantom was an enigma that had made a base in the middle of Ethereal Pyre, but apparently it was doing hardly anything at all itself. Its subordinates seemed very capable though. Memoxara summoned Micoda's essence from the ruptured end of Timestream to Last Haven, making Santes curious as to what the demon queen's plans were. The man who had proven victorious in combat against The Divine Core would certainly be a great asset in stopping the Phantom. The tasks set for Micoda, however, were especially harsh, and Memoxara made a point by having the last battle trial be a duel between Micoda and Gedrun. Santes understood that this battle was essentially just a gambit, which could ultimately reveal the true nature of the elf. Indeed Gedrun was unable to hold its true identity back, and it was revealed that the elf was not himself. The imposter was Hadras, the Flametongue Dragon. Micoda dispatched of the creature before it could access its full power and joined the inner circle. Now, however, the circle would have to solve the mystery of the Phantom. While they commenced operations to face the Phantom, they realized a few factors. The followers of The Divine Core were still out there, awaiting the return of their master. Also, the battle strength of the Phantom of the Apocalypses and his group was astounding, and they did not desire an all-out conquest in the way that The Divine Core did. Micoda had confronted the Phantom, but the Phantom had merely stated that it was'' "the'' midway, the third option - there will always be a third option. It is not that anyone has to follow the Will of the Universe or The Divine Core. I am the third path. These essences have sought only to become more powerful, but I am more interested in the secrets of the universe. Follow me and forfeit the dreams of the archaic ones." Santes fought alongside Micoda and others at Battle of the Plains. Dystopia Santes joined Infinite Legion at some point during Purged Decades. However, at an operation called Phoenix he realized the error of their organization's judgment in attacking Micoda, but was struck down by another operative, "Wyvern". It is not exactly known, but it is likely that after this encounter, he was attacked by Micoda's (Doombringer) clones and heavily injured, only to be saved by Memoxara and given the task of killing Micoda. He entered Dystopia at an unknown point of time and assumed his old alias, Legionnaire. He did not disclose his true identity to anyone except Vera Evia, who he knew was actually Ghejyen. After a while, he had defeated the other gladiators and assumed the rank of #1, while leaving the corrupt Duke of Dystopia in charge of the area. The feared organization of Ten Devils bowed to him. However, he was approached by a man called Alba, the mysterious influential Chairman of Slave Trade Association. He informed them that Doombringer #39, a clone of the notorious terrorist Micoda, was actually Micoda himself. Santes was also alerted to the power of "Gargantuan", an assassin sent to kill Micoda by an unknown terrorist group. He chose to deal with the intruder with his own power, launching his sword to kill the assassin. Santes had thought of Alba's message as nothing but an attempt to confuse him, but he was finally left with no choice other than requesting aid from Themos "Black Rage" Regus, his trusted ally and an ex-Legionnaire himself, What followed was unbelievable, as Themos fully used his power in an arena tournament, ending up destroyed by Micoda. The fury of Santes was fearsome and he requested a battle against Micoda with no way to retreat. Micoda gained power from the mysterious Original Shadow, gladiator #11 and an enemy of Ten Devils, then accepted the challenge and went on to face Santes for the rank of #1. Santes provoked Micoda and drew his attention with a memory he forced upon him, as Santes showed a scene where he killed Micoda. The scene was not actual, as it had simply been a clone, but he wanted to see if there was a murderous personality hidden under this face of an underdog. Micoda was heavily raging and fought fiercely, with the two similar combatants being fairly even. At some point of the battle, Micoda succeeded in reading his opponent's mind, discovered Santes's identity, and persevered until Santes lost his morale and gave up on the clash. Micoda took Santes's soul with him from the fight. After the battle, Micoda was approached by Vera Evia, who wanted Santes's soul returned, as without it, he would die. Micoda did as she asked and saw Santes's true memories, realizing he had not truly been a villain. Micoda and Santes then joined forces in defending the city against siege of Dystopia, an attack launched as a conspiracy by someone among their ranks. It turned out to be Myrell, the operator of arena systems. As they fought Myrell, who revealed himself as Xeon, Duke of Dystopia perished. In the end, Myrell fell to Micoda's ruthless attacks, but his co-conspirators were left shrouded in mystery. Ten Masters and the stance against Legion Grex, elite officer of the Legion appointed Santes as the new Lord of Dystopia. Yet there was something in the works. A gunshot rang from nowhere, stopping Micoda in his tracks as he proceeded to leave the arena after a celebratory event marking the beginning of a new era in Dystopia. This turned out to be a ploy by Chief Investigator Heiger of Infinite Legion, a bureaucrat greatly despised by many. The Ten Masters were all held for questioning, while Micoda was dragged into Infernal Pit and dropped into its depths for purification by flame, a strange rite that would rumoredly destroy the evil in him. Yet Micoda was revitalized and faced the hidden enemy in the Pit, the powerful dragon Hadras. The battle ended with no victor and no loser, as the dragon fled and Micoda was left alive. Santes broke out of questioning and came to the scene at the right time, unleashing his special form, Living Flame Mode, and provoking them to fight him. "You may control the fire, but you cannot contain a living flame!" he exclaimed, with none of the guards daring to take him on. He took Micoda back with him despite the Legion's wishes. When they returned, Santes instructed Micoda to leave Dystopia and escape Legion's wrath, saying that he would disband Ten Devils and make sure its successor, Ten Masters, would aid him someday. Santes proceeded for more than a month with the new policy in Dystopia. One day, the summoner Samael asked for an audience with him with information only Micoda would be privy to. When he faced Samael, he understood that this man was a sort of a reincarnation of Micoda, as he had inherited all of Micoda's memories and knowledge. Micoda himself had apparently been defeated at Third Universe, so Santes devised a plan. Samael and his companions, wolf-man Lutir and information analyst android Javier, were to search the mysterious city of dreams that they broke the Infinite Legion's rules to find. On the other hand, Santes would lead his group, comprised of many of the Ten Masters, to find and resurrect Micoda. Defeat by Shadowguide The group led by Santes entered the Third Universe and rallied to its northern, ominous peninsula. Awaiting them and defending the peninsula once again was Shadowguide, a mysterious opponent with powers unbound by the same laws of nature as everyone else. They engaged in lengthy combat, which unfortunately did not go according to their sheer overwhelming numbers. The attacks could not damage the evasive small assassin, who seemed unconcerned and defended against the strikes that it could not dodge. While they exhausted their energies, Shadowguide used its size to land critical hits from weird angles on even the strongest of them. After seemingly endless battle for Santes's group, as they found no way to really gain an advantage '''against the enemy whose energies did not even seem to deplete, ''it succeeded in killing every single ally of Santes before taking in a hit which led to it crafting a portal to retreat. Santes's fury was great, and he did not even think before following the enemy into the unknown behind the portal. Inside, there was a small space-time pocket. The creature finally revealed its face as that of Markaj, and that Micoda was alive, but Santes could not be less moved by even this information. By unleashing his Living Flame Mode, the former soldier plunged his blazing fist through the chest of Markaj and left him for dead. However, the strain on his own body was such that he collapsed, eventually bleeding out internally. Shadowguide was successful in revitalizing, using the same unparallelled means of energy as before. Legacy in events to follow In truth, the fall of Santes's group had all been a ploy to have them rescue Micoda, but die in the process and cover up the fact that Shadowguide was still alive even after the battle. However, Santes's soul knew the truth and Micoda found out about it as he burned Santes's remains. Meanwhile, Samael escaped the collapsing city of dreams after defeating its master and commenced battle against who were believed to be the true enemies: the followers of Phantom of the Apocalypses. The Clocksmith then realized that Santes's operation had been successful: Micoda was alive, and he conveyed the information to Samael. Much later, Grex pieced together that the only possible master that The Three Mages could have was Shadowguide, the creature that was so intent on stopping anyone from reaching the Black Tower at the peninsula. Category:Characters